Physics: What can water, polystyrene balls and an ultra-fast laser tell us about the universe?

Suitable for secondary, high school and college students, this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, school clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 physics.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• Though life and the universe are pretty complex, there are underlying rules that govern how they work. Uncovering them is no easy task, but Dr Serim Ilday and her team at Bilkent University in Turkey believe they have cracked an important one. Using simple ingredients – water, polystyrene balls and an ultra-fast laser – they have uncovered some fascinating universal truths, which have very promising real-world applications.

• This resource also includes an interview with Serim about her career path. She has won several awards, one of which is the 'Oreal-Unesco Award for Women in Science. If your students (or you) have questions for Serim, you/they can send them to her online. All you need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Serim will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) and activities to prompt students to reflect on Serim’s research.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

If you like these free resources – or have suggestions for improvements –, please let us know and leave us some feedback. Thank you!